Saturday, January 14, 2012

Marc Eisen's Walker/Rail Analysis On Track

The former editor at Isthmus explains why Walker's killing the Amtrak extension was so mistaken.

Now imagine an updated rail system carrying people from the Twin Cities to downtown Chicago in less than six hours — even faster than driving and on a par with a complicated airline connection.

Oops! Don't consider it. That scenario is precisely what Walker killed when he gave back the $810 million — federal funding that would have paid the full capital costs of connecting Madison to Milwaukee.

Says Watertown Mayor Ron Krueger: "That decision will hurt the state of Wisconsin for decades to come."

4 comments:

Bill Sell said...

I have a compatible theory to add to the Walker motivation for killing high speed rail. He understands in some way that rail empowers cities; and empowering Madison or Milwaukee is not on his agenda. Sprawl, isolation, racism, and social defragmentation work in favor of his politics.

Bill Sell

Paul Trotter said...

It was a political gimmic that really had no foresight but appealed to those without vision and lived entirely in the present.

This is a remarkable article in that it quotes individuals from republican strongholds who favored the highspeed rail and were making plans for business developments created as a result. Tell me. Where we're these people when Walker was running. I certainly hope that these people step up to the plate when Walker defends his policies in the recall.

James Rowen said...

Agree 100%, Bill.

Mitch said...

It's not a "mistaken" action. It was intended to harm Madison and Dane County, and it will succeed in that purpose.